grameenphone ltd. - bracu ir

Implementation of Short term loan for Mobile Financial Services 1

Internship report on

Implementation of Short term loan for Mobile Financial Services of

Grameenphone Ltd. Submitted to:

Ms. UmmulWaraAdrita

Lecturer

BRAC Business School

BRAC University

Submitted by:

Rafia Fardous

14104124


BRAC University

Course: BUS 400

Submission date:

29 November, 2018


Letter of Transmittal

29 November, 2018

Ms. UmmulWaraAdrita

Lecturer, BRAC Business School

BRAC University

Subject: Submission of the Internship report

Dear Miss,

I am really very pleased that I am submitting my internship report on ‘Implementation of short

term loan for mobile financial services’. I had to go to many places to gather information related

to this topic. I have tried to portray the current market condition and potential future problem

related to this field. This is a very fresh experience for me to work with such a team who are

very much devoted towards their work. I tried to gather as much information as possible and

put those in my report. I hope this report will be informative and useful.

Finally, I am really very thankful to my team Business Innovation, Digital Department. Besides

that, I want to thank my honorable faculty member for being cooperative throughout the whole

semester.

Sincerely,

Rafia Fardous

14104124


Letter of Endorsement

The internship report which is ‘Implementation of short term loan for mobile financial services

of Grameenphone Ltd’ is made to fulfill the course requirement of BRAC Business School. I am

confirming that all the information mentioned in this report is acquired by the company from

surveys.

(Any opinion or suggestions made in the report are entirely that of the author of the report. The

University does not condone nor reject any of these opinions or suggestions)

---------------------------------

Ms. UmmulWaraAdrita

Internship Supervisor Faculty

Lecturer


BRAC University


Acknowledgement

First of all I would like to show my purest gratitude towards Allah for letting me finish my

internship without facing any problem. My topic sounds really interesting and very realistic in

terms of current market situation. The more I explored the market, the deeper I felt the

problem is. That’s why I was very devoted while creating the report.

Secondly, it would have been very difficult for me to write this report without the help of my

internship supervisor UmmulWaraAdrita. From believing me to choose this report to checking

whether it is right or not, she was always supportive. It wouldn’t be this smooth without her

help.

Besides that my supervisor of Grameenphone Salwa Bakht, Senior Executive of Financial

Services showed some real patience while making me understand the whole process. She was

supportive all along so much interested to show me the real scenario of the present condition of

the market. I would also like to thank Nur-E-Azam, Executive of Financial Services for helping

me during my tenure.

Lastly, I would like to thanks my parents for always believing in me and letting me chase my

dream.


Executive Summary

Grameenphone Ltd is one of the leading and prominent Telco companies in Bangladesh.

Grameenphone is constantly innovating and providing world class services to satisfy their

consumers.

At the very beginning of the report I have given an overview of Grameenphone Ltd and its

history. It will give the readers a clear idea about GrameenphoneLtd’s activity and mission

vision.

In the next part I will be providing organizational structure of the company which will give the

readers a clear idea about the structure of the company as well as the management team.

Next part of the report contains an overview of all the functions of Grameenphone mobile

financial services. That will be the main focus of my report. Because I have seen the revenue

loss of GP due to stock out of the retailers.This is the point where I will be focusing on the

most. I have interviewed some retailers as well as the distributors of Grameenphone to define

the problem and find out the solutions to the problem.

In the following part I have given my day to day activities in Grameenphone. I have given a

detailed and comprehensive overview of my involvement with Grameenphone over the last

three months.

I have also mentioned the limitations and learning in the last part of the report. I have also

tried to come up with few suggestions from my observations which I believe can be helpful to

Grameenphone Ltd.


Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 8

1.1 Introduction of Grameenphone Ltd.............................................................................................. 8

1.2 Origin of the report .......................................................................................................................... 9

1.3 Objective of the report .................................................................................................................... 9

1.4 Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 9

1.5 Limitations while preparing the report ...................................................................................... 10

2 Organizational Overview: ...................................................................................................................... 11

2.1 Industry overview ........................................................................................................................... 11

2.2 Share of Grameenphone ............................................................................................................... 12

2.3 Corporate Division and Departments of Grameenphone: ..................................................... 13

2.4 Mission, Vision and Values ........................................................................................................... 14

2.5 Grameenphone Organizational structure: ............................................................................... 16

2.6 Corporate Social Responsibility of Grameenphone ................................................................. 17

3 Concept Part: ........................................................................................................................................... 18

3.1 Defining the problem: ................................................................................................................... 18

3.2 Looking deep into the problem: .................................................................................................. 18

3.3 Interviews: ....................................................................................................................................... 19

3.4 Interview outcome ......................................................................................................................... 20

3.5 Market impact: ................................................................................................................................ 21

3.6 Solution to the problem ................................................................................................................ 21

3.7 Financial Analysis: .......................................................................................................................... 22

4 Activities undertaken .............................................................................................................................. 24

4.1 Job responsibilities: ........................................................................................................................ 24

5 Internship outcome ................................................................................................................................ 25

5.1 Learning outcome and experience: ............................................................................................ 25

5.2 Problems I faced during my internship ..................................................................................... 26


5.3 Influence of this internship on my career plan ........................................................................ 27

6 Challenges and recommendation: ...................................................................................................... 27

6.1 Identified challenges in GP ........................................................................................................... 27

6.2 Recommendation ............................................................................................................................ 28

7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 29

8 References: .............................................................................................................................................. 30


1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Grameenphone Ltd.

Company Registration No: C-31531 (652)/96

Grameenphone is the largest cellular operator and best telecom service in terms of network,

coverage and services. This is the biggest mobile telecom operator in Bangladesh in terms of

subscriber (65.3 Mn) and in terms of revenue (128.4 Bn). Grameenphone received its license

for cellular phone operations from Ministry of Post and telecommunication, Bangladesh back in

March 26, 1997. This company has more than 65.3 Million subscribers as of December 2017.

Grameenphone is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor and Grameen telecom.

Telenor is the largest Norwegian company in Norway which own 55.80% shares of

Grameenphone .Grameenphone has stepped into its 21th year of operation. This leading

company is known best for its brilliant network infrastructure. Besides that they are the trend

setter and most of the new innovations of telecom era are initiated by them. Now

Grameenphone has 71 million subscribers within Bangladesh who takes part in creating

revenue. Customers who are the main part for this organization are known to be very much

loyal toward the company and services.

Grameenphone has also contributed in direct and indirect employment for a large number of

people over the years in Bangladesh. As at 31st December 2017, Grameenphone had 2,397

permanent full time employees. There are many people in addition to the permanent employees

who are directly and indirectly dependent on Grameenphone for their livelihood, people who are

working for the distributors, retailers, suppliers, vendors, contractors and other business

partners.


1.2 Origin of the report

This report shows a clear idea of my 3 month activity and work experiences after completing

Bachelor of Business Administration course program named internship. And I am very happy

because I got this opportunity to write my internship report on “Grameenphone Ltd.” Under

supervision of Salwa Bakht, Senior Executive, Financial Services.I completed my internship

period on the supervision of advisor UmmulwaraAdrita, Lecturer, BRAC University. I got full

support from my supervisors as well as respected faculty member while writing my report. I

tried to show my day to day activities in my report and what I have learnt. The topic of the

report is to show the market gap between the demand and supply of liquidity of the mobile

financial services of Grameenphone. This liquidity problem causes 40% revenue loss in the

remote areas.

1.3 Objective of the report

The primary objective of preparing this report is to fulfill the requirement of internship program

of BRAC University. But I had a great experience while collecting data and meeting new people.

Besides that I got know about different aspects of Grameenphone Ltd. Some of the other

important objectives of preparing this report on Grameenphone Ltd are given below:

To present an overview of Grameenphone Ltd.

To analyze the industry

To analyze the core functions of Grameenphone Ltd

To analyze the credit stock out problem in details

1.4 Methodology

Primary data: For primary data collection I mostly depended on interviews. I interviewed my

line manager and supervisors about my topics. Besides that I went to Gazipur remote area to

talk with the retailers who face huge stock out problem. I took in-depth interviews and got to


know about the difficulties they face. Apart from Gazipur I went to Mirpur and Khilgaon to talk

to the balance distributors, sales executives and retailers.

Secondary data: For secondary data collection I went to different websites, annual reports and

journals.

1.5 Limitations while preparing the report

Time constraint:

Big companies like Grameenphone make the best use of their employees as well as the interns.

Though I learned a lot from them but it is undeniable that for the last three months I faced

huge workload with limited time frame. I worked for 3 projects at the same time. It was really

very hard for me to balance between completing my work and preparing this report. So to work

under huge pressure in the limited time frame was one of the major challenge I faced preparing

this report.

Confidentiality

Telecom industry is competitive than any other industries of Bangladesh. There is a huge

competition among the players. Grameenphonehas its code of conduct to maintain the

confidentiality among the employees. So being a part of organization like this is very

challenging for me to maintain that and prepare the report. So it was not possible for me to

mention everything in the report as it will breach the code of conduct and leakage of

information to the competitors. I only provided the data in the report which is publically

available.

Mismatch between Academic background and functional department:

Although I am a Marketing graduate student, here I had to work mostly with Engineers,

Finance, Financial services and other department employees as well. I had to do research about

their field of work to match their standard. My supervisors and co-workers were very

cooperative and they helped me a lot to overcome this barrier.


2 Organizational Overview:

2.1 Industry overview

The telecom industry is one of the most flourished and prominent industries of Bangladesh. The

players of this industry are very competitive and aggressive. There is likely to be whole new

wave of innovations in value added services as well as data for telecom players. The telecom

brands are very proactive when it comes to digitalization. They have been actively participating

in every campaign and adding value in the project of ‘Digital Bangladesh’. Apart from this

digitalization these companies are even participating in creating employment. When this country

was lagging behind from new innovation and digitalization, Telecom industry helpsthem to keep

up the pace. Besides that this fastest growing industry has already attracted many marketing

geniuses, researchers, research companies to explore the opportunities. Researchers are trying

to investigate different markets and potentials of those markets. Even multinational giants are

taking tech solution from this industry. Now-a-days they are even thinking on going global.

Grameenphone is the market leader in telecommunication business of Bangladesh. The total

number of Grameenphone subscriber is 65.304,RobiAxiata Limited is 45.258, Banglalink Digital

Communications Limited is 33.403, Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd is 3.769 (in millions).


2.2 Share of Grameenphone

Grameenphone is a concern of Telenor group which is one of the leading Norwegian telecom

companies. Telenor owns 55.8% ,Grameen Telecom owns 34.2% and 10% of the shares are

for general public & other institutions. Being the highest shareholder of Grameenphone, Telenor

dominates the most when it comes to dominate the decision making and managerial decision.

Now GP has introduces digital market service where different apps are used in one digital

basket. These apps are GP music, GP apps, MyGp app, Gpay, Wowbox, Bioscope, Shoparu, GP

online store. Most of the apps are made according to customer’s needs. These apps make

customer’s life easier and create a good brand image.

Grameenphone has so far invested more than BDT 278 Billion to build this strong network

infrastructure on a nationwide basis. In 2017, Grameenphone invested BDT 14.5 billion. The

majority of the investment was for the expansion of 2G and 3G

coverage along with capacity up-gradation to support higher data and voice traffic and improve

customer experience. Grameenphone rolled out 1,776 3G sites and 1,010 2G sites in 2017,


increasing the 3G population coverage to 92.6%. With 12,994 sites across the country,

Grameenphone currently provides its telecommunication services covering 99.5% of the total

population of the country.

Grameenphone is one of the largest tax payers of Bangladesh. The total contribution to

government since its inception up until December 2017 was BDT 585.2 billion, of which BDT

61.8 billion was made in 2017. Out of total BDT 585.2 billion, BDT 527.9 billion was made on

account of direct tax, VAT and duties through National Board of Revenue (NBR) and Bangladesh

Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Grameenphone has been recognized by the

National Board of Revenue as the largest corporate taxpayer in the Telecommunication sector,

in 2015 and 2016.

With the payment of taxes and the investment in the network, Grameenphone is making a

significant contribution to the country’s growth and development.

2.3 Corporate Division and Departments of Grameenphone:

Grameenphone is the largest telecommunication operator in Bangladesh which has various

departments to operate on day to day basis. Apart from that Grameenphone follows the mixture

of centralized and decentralized decision making process. Here top management is responsible

for strategic decisions while functional management is responsible for day to day work. The

departments of Grameenphone are:

Commercial Division

Finance Division

Corporate Affairs Division

Managing Director Division

People and Organization Division

Technology Division

Customer experience

Service Transformation Division

Digital Division


2.4 Mission, Vision and Values

Grameenphone always bring the best solution in communication and technology so that the

people of the country can go beyond.

Vision

“We exist to help our customers get the full benefit of communications services in their daily

lives. We’re here to help”

Mission

Grameenphone is the only reliable means of communication that brings the people of

Bangladesh close to their loved ones and important things in their lives through unparalleled of

network, relevant innovations and services.

Empower Societies

They provide the power of digital communication, enabling everyone to improve their lives,

build societies and secure a better future for all.

Core Values

Make It Easy: Everything that they make should be easy to use and understand. Besides

that they always try to make their customer’s lives easier.

Keep Promises: Everything they should work perfectly. If it doesn’t, they’re there to put

things right. They’re about delivery, not over-promising. They’re about action, not

words.

Be Inspiring: They are creative. They bring energy and imagination to their work.

Everything they produce should look fresh and modern.

Be Respectful: They acknowledge and respect local culture. They want to be a part of

local communities wherever they operate. They want to help customers with their

specific needs in a way that suits way of their life best.


Brand promise:

Previous: “Stay Close”

At present: “Go Beyond”

GP WAY: Their Way of Work

It is how they do business

It's all about living their vision, values, codes, leadership, governing principles in our

daily life and deliver upon our brand promise – Stay Close and Go Beyond

Organizational Structure

Flatter organization

Two growth stream: Leadership & Specialist

Workplace Ethics

Fortified Codes of Conduct

Ensured compliance

Sustainability Consciousness

Paperless office

Reduce 15% carbon emission by 2012 & 40% by 2015

Corporate Transformation: 'Green Company'

Aware-Engage-Advocate GP employees


2.5 Grameenphone Organizational structure:


2.6 Corporate Social Responsibility of Grameenphone

Grameenphone has always been committed to empower the society with digital solutions. This

company always works for the betterment of the society. Right now they are doing these CSR

activities:

Online School-quality education for left out children: Grameenphone wanted to improve

the quality system of underprivileged children. That’s why they merged with Jaago

Foundation and Agni System Ltd. launched an online school in 2011. Their aim is to

provide quality education to rural underprivileged students.

Supporting during Natural Disaster: Grameenphone always plays dynamic role in playing

role during difficult moments like flood, storm, building collapse. They are always beside

the crisis moment of our country.

Climate change green endeavor for green business operation: Grameenphone is highly

focuses on the sustainable solutions and environment friendly networks. That’s why they

are concerned with low-carbon society policy. Basically they are prioritizing on low CO2

emission generated by their own operations.

Online Child Safety-an eye opening study on Bangladeshi children: Along with the

agenda of supporting under privileged children Grameenphone is working on safe

internet and online safety omission policy. This is one of the many problems that has

become a major concern for the parents. In this case Grameenphone can monitor

children behavior of children and limit some selected websites which can bring out the

negativity in them.

Safe Internet Workshop-Country wide awareness:Grameenphone has associated with

BRAC for countrywide safe internet.

Grameenphone has also done many CSR activities in early years like:

1. Sponsor of Bangladesh Special Olympics Team

2. Sponsor of Bangladesh National Cricket Team

3. Establishment of Blood Bank at Bogra for underprivileged patients

4. Blood donation camps for underprivileged Thalassemia patients


3 Concept Part:

3.1 Defining the problem:

Mobile money is growing so fast around the world. Now consumers don’t want to wait in lines

to pay bills or recharge their phones. In simple form mobile money allows them to use their

mobile phones as virtual wallet. By using this virtual wallet they can pay bills to service

providers, transfer money through their phones, exchange physical cash with the help of

agents. This is an emerging market in Asia and some countries of Africa. Since this has a very

high demand, meeting supply is getting difficult.

Although the aim is to provide faster money solution, the back end value chain is complicated

and difficult to manage. There are many layers which makes the process difficult. First of all

there are distributors who spread the service across large geographic area. Those distributors

then hire sales executives/delivery guys to distribute float to those areas. These retailers are

the ultimate touch points for end customers. A customer can avail Mobile Financial Services

(MFS) through these retailers. They also get a commission from the parents company. The

problematic areas are:

1. Customers go back without taking the service because of stock out problem

2. Because of vast geographic area sales executives miss out some of the retailers

3. No existing loan service for retailers

4. Parent company is losing Return on Investment (ROI) because of stock out problem.

3.2 Looking deep into the problem:

On a rough cut survey done on Bangladeshi customers, it was found that retailers return 30%

of the customers on an average day, 33% of retailers in India said that they have to reject

customers due to lack of float and Kenyan retailers claim that they cannot serve customers 5%

of the time due to lack of float. In Pakistan, majority retailers claimed liquidity to be a major

barrier in MFS business.


3.3 Interviews:

A thorough user research in the Bangladesh market resulted in interesting findings. I

interviewed 10 retailers, 3 sales executives, 2 distributors and 2 parent company executives to

validate the problem. Apart from interviewing the key value chain members, I also had focused

group discussions with sales managers, followed Sales Delivery Guys for an entire run to

understand the customer journey (participant observation), observed retailers during peak

hours and so on. Triangulating all the information from different sources brought us to the

following pain points of the value chain.


3.4 Interview outcome

User group Characteristics Pain point

Retailers

-Bottom of the pyramid

-Usually happy with their

present condition

- 5-10 years in business

- Usually they have a very

loyal customer base

- Earns commission on

transaction

- Proud and reputed

-Losing out on customers and

profit

- No instant support for retailers

-Retailers can’t balance e-

money and hard cash

whenever they want

-Unpredictable customer

demand

-Limited power on upper

management

Sales executives -Distributor: Reseller who

hires delivery guys for stock

delivery

-1000 retailers under a

distributor

-30 retailer per delivery guy

-Delivery guys usually stay in

the morning

-Cover either large number or

geography of retail

-Runs cash handling security

risk

-Bounded by banking hours

-No real-time view of retailer

status

-Fails to manage delivery routes

efficiently

-High manpower cost

Parent Company -Licensed MFS provider

-Earns Service

charge/transaction

-Customer loyalty and brand

value

-Key decision makers and

initiative takers

-20% retailers contribute to

80% performance

-Diversification risk

-Remotest market coverage is

still low

-Poor customer experience

-Difficult to manager robust

distribution channel

-Gives upper hand to

competition


3.5 Market impact:

MFS services are available in more than 92 countries with a huge customer base. This industry

processed 269 Billion USD in transaction being served by 4.3 million registered mobile money

agents. According to GSMA industry report, mobile money providers process an average of

30,000 transactions per minute. However the end retailers are not able to cater every customer,

this results in an industry loss of roughly 3 billion USD every year. This usually happens when

demand is higher than supply. This potential revenue loss creates dissatisfaction in that

particular industry.

Apart from revenue loss there are also some problems like customer dissatisfaction, loss of

reputation in the industry. The beauty of mobile financial service is the transaction speed. The

faster the money moves, the more money its players make. But insufficient liquidity

management increases the amount of idle money in the market.

If the demand increases dramatically, the problem will be more severe. Besides that the

solution will be difficult to execute.

3.6 Solution to the problem

Liquid Eye is a real time market monitoring and electronic balance optimization solution for

mobile money businesses. It is a complete digital liquidity management solution to cater to the

needs of all value chain members. Firstly, it will provide a smart algorithm which will

automatically predict the amount of electronic balance that retailers need to keep which will

help optimize their investment. Alongside that, real time interfaces like apps and dashboards

with features like real-time updates, remote transfer options will be given to delivery guys and

distributors to help them serve the market faster.

Liquid Eye will solve these particular problems:

1. Real time update

2. Remote transfer

3. Route suggestion

4. Retailer rating


3.7 Financial Analysis:

I have made a Five year financial analysis where I have found that its impact is significant in

terms of the revenue. I have prepared the below financial analysis table where I have covered

the revenue, revenue associated cost, general cost and other cost. The revenue and cost of the

coming years are forecasted and in line with Grameenphone previous year performance.

Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Total Revenue

128,400

141,240

155,364

170,900

187,990

Revenue from retailers

109,140

120,054

132,059

145,265

159,792

Current Revenue loss

3,274

3,602

3,962

4,358

4,794

Expected Revenue Gain

2,619

2,881

3,169

3,486

3,835

Cost associated to the

retailer

131

144

158

174

192

Promotional Cost

210

231

254

279

307

Transportation Cost

13

14

16

17

19

Other Cost

183

202

222

244

268

Total Cost

537

591

650

715

786

Total Return

Contribution'

2,082

2,291

2,520

2,772

3,049

Table: Five year forecasted financial model for the project


The initial return from this activity is 2Bn from first year and then it will improve gradually. I

have made a five year financial analysis and found it will contribute a significant contribution in

the coming years. After five year we need to revisit the model and then we can also look for the

profitability going forward. From the above financial model and analysis I can see the project is

profitable and business viable.

Challenges:

I have not considered the Capital expenditure part here as it is not fixed yet. But I have talked

with the finance colleague about this issue. If there is a part of Capital expenditure then there

will be two part involved, the Hardware and Soft-ware part. Then we have to reevaluate the

model including the CAPEX part. We also have to include the depreciation and amortization part

in the financial model. If the CAPEX part is not that significant then we can tell from the five

years financial model that this project will add significant value to Grameenphone in coming

years.

2,082 2,291

2,520 2,772

3,049

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Total Return From Contribution


While we are doing the financial analysis we have faced some other challenges as well. But with

the help from the different teams it was resolved and taken care well in the end. The following

challenges were there while doing the financial analysis:

Availability of Data

Educate the Retailers

Time management

Fix the parameters

Ensure documentation

4 Activities undertaken

4.1 Job responsibilities:

It was a great opportunity to work as an intern in of Business Innovation team. This internship

was for a specific project named Liquid Eye. Project Liquid Eye and the team won the Local

championship in one of the biggest international platform, Ignite Incubator Program hosted by

Telenor. As we were working in digital solution for MFS providers, the Liquid Eye team was

placed in the Digital Service team for one year period. So, I have the knowledge of both the

departments. As being the Local winner, they are given funds to develop their products further

with Grameenphone. Ignite’s aim is to develop digital products and solutions that can positively

impact the societies in the country where Telenor operates in. The project was about

developing a solution for liquidity management, which would help the retailers; Sales

Executives(SE), distribution house and the parent company to earn more revenue as well as

customer can get better service. Liquid Eye Team consisted of 3 initial members later I was

appointed as an intern. The team was divided in two parts, one was User Research and another

was Technical Research. I was assisting on the user research part of the project.

In the initial days of my internship, my basic responsibilities were simple but it evolved as the

time passed:

- Documentation: Throughout my team’s training period of Ignite, they developed their idea

and gathered many information. Also after the competition has ended, they did 2 market visits.


My job was to analyze those data and make forecast in excel from those data and upload those

file in the designated portal so that the SE can see the liquidity position of the retailers as well

as the distribution house can have a look through the whole process.

- Transcribe: Before I joined there were already many interviews taken from the stakeholders.

So my task was to organize those data and make presentation from the important findings.

-Prepare Questionnaires: My supervisor asked me to prepare questionnaires for other

stakeholders and conduct interviews

-Manage and Conduct Interviews: After few weeks, I had to manage some relevant

stakeholders of the project and conduct interviews with them like the SE and retailers of

different distribution house.

- Prepare Reports: I had to make reports based on my findings from the interview. Some based

on their previous collected data and sometimes on the current data, which we are still

collecting.

- Analysis: I also had to analyze all the information that were collected and write up summaries

give my unbiased opinion on the research findings and find out top retailers and top SE based

on their performance.

- Technical Research: As I was performing well, I was also given responsibility on technical

research part and create report from portals and various sources.

5 Internship outcome

5.1 Learning outcome and experience:

My internship period started from October 9th, 2018 in Grameenphone Ltd. It is a 3 month

period internship program. I have learned so many things from this whole thing. Besides this I

got to know my potentials and my strengths. I have done every possible thing to develop my

skills and make the best use of my time.


Personal development:

Grameenphone conducts many seminars and workshops to make sure the employees

know about the new technologies and every details that can help them in various

aspects of life. My team members and supervisors gave me enough room to explore my

abilities. During this internship period, my leadership skills, decision making skills, critical

thinking skills have improved a lot. Besides I learnt to be patient, cautious and work

under pressure.

Skill development:

Before joining Grameenphone I used to be a very introvert person. But my skills in

terms of communication, technicality and adaptability have improved a lot. Since I had

to engage with almost everyone in my department, I got the chance to talk to them

about my improvement areas. I could know their expertise. Beside this I got the

opportunity to learn the usage of many hardware and software as well as Microsoft

Office/Excel extensively. This has helped me to be more efficient than I was before.

Building connection:

Connection building is one of the most important things to do during internship. I tried

maintaining positive relationship with people of different departments as well as my own

department. I tried to stay relevant while talking to them which eventually led me to be

a part of their team. This helped me in various ways like I got to know about their

upcoming project and how they are going to execute those projects.

5.2 Problems I faced during my internship

It was a fun experience for me to work for Grameenphone. But it was very challenging to avail

every opportunity to work. It might be a single organization but there are different departments

and different people working in there. Though my co-workers and supervisors were super

friendly, I still faced some minor difficulties. And they are:

1. As I had to work in a team, I had to report to other three seniors. It was a pressure for

me to work in three different projects. Moreover their way of work was different. So I

had to face difficulties in term of finding a common medium to explain things to them


2. Grameenphone is a paperless office. Everything done here is digital. I had to face some

problem to adopt and get dependent on using laptop and various application

3. For research work I had to talk to other employees of Grameenphone. It was one of the

challenges I faced because it was really difficult to communicate with them and get the

required information. Moreover, I had to go to different locations to talk to the retailers

and sales executives. It was also a challenge for me to get the proper information from

them.

4. Another challenge I had to face is that I had to work mostly with engineers and financial

officers. I am mentioning it as a challenge because I am a marketing graduate. I had to

work very hard to match their standard.

5.3 Influence of this internship on my career plan

There are influences of my internship on my further career plan. From very young age I wanted

to work in MNCs. But I wasn’t sure from where I can start. Doing internship in telecom industry

enriched my knowledge as well as stirred my interest in this industry. I got to know so many

things specially the corporate culture. Through this internship I know what I want to do in

future and this boosted up my confidence that I will be able to adapt to different culture of

different companies.

6 Challenges and recommendation:

6.1 Identified challenges in GP

Turnover:

Grameenphone Ltd one of the most cherished work place for most of the people. This is the top

choice among the MNC’s where people want to work. From interesting work to salaries and

incentives of Grameenphone, everything seems so appealing. But there is always an other side

of the story. The competition in telecom industry is beyond imagination in Bangladesh. Meeting


the demand of the customer used to be the biggest challenge for telecom companies. But now

it’s not just meeting demands. They need to come up with new innovations and new ways to

add value in the consumer’s life. It is very hard to brainstorm and come up with fresh ideas.

Failing to cope up with the pressure many people quit their jobs. This is a great pressure for the

companies. Because turnover and recruiting new people adds unexpected expense to

companies overall expense. Furthermore recruiting, training and finding suitable people is also

time consuming.

Limited Career Growth and Opportunities: Career growth is one of the most important things in people’s life. But keeping the job and

working for the company has become a challenging thing for Grameenphone employees

because of sudden lay off. This has also created a bad name for the company. This thing makes

the employees demotivated. They cannot think the company as theirs, so they don’t put 100%

effort while working.

6.2 Recommendation

Because of stock out problem 33% customers go empty handed. This is a potential revenue

loss for a big company like Grameenphone. There are some measures that can be taken to

solve this problem. However, other companies face this problem even more severely than

Grameenphone. GP can encourage the support department to work more effectively so that the

system problem can be solved. They can monitor the distributor, retailer, and sales executive’s

performance and motivate them to keep up the good thing. The other measures that can be

taken are:

1. Create more accurate forecast to determine which retailers face stock out problem more

frequently

2. Sales executives should have at least some idea about potential stock out area

3. Short term loan which have very less commission cut can be introduced. By this both

the retailers and parent company can be benefitted.

4. The layer between the parent company and retailer should be reduced


5. Distributors should have more access to the retailer’s data. So that they can forecast

demands and future stock out.

7 Conclusion Getting an opportunity to work at Grameenphone was truly a privilege for me. I am really very

happy that I got the best supervisors one can hope for. They helped me a lot to collect as much

experience during my tenure. Throughout my internship period I have gone through immense

pressure for several times but every time I faced any problem they helped me to get through it.

I would say my existing skills enhanced and I learned many new things which will always help

me in my future. Now I know how to deal with different kind of people and my communication

skills got better by time. No matter where I will work next this 3 months experience will always

be my favorite. All this knowledge and skills will boost my confidence. Besides this it will help

me to become a better person in future. Finally I would like to say that this is a once in a life

time experience that I got from here and I will utilize every bit of it.


8 References:

Grameenphone. 2018. GP. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.grameenphone.com/. [Accessed 14 November 2018].

Investopedia. 2018. Financial model. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/search/?search-terms=FIve%20year%20analysis%20of%20%20project. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Project management. 2018. Project Analysis. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/basic-process-project-management-2114. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Grameenphone.2018. GP Investor site. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.grameenphone.com/business/investor-relations/ir-annual-report/annual-report-2017. [Accessed 20 November 2018].

Whiteboard.(2017). Fund Starter. [online] Available at: http://www.white-board.co/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2017]

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